Arts Council in San Bernardino County prepares for “Cisne” art showcase and free programming

While many across the city of San Bernardino have heard about the Arts Council in San Bernardino County, many people are still unaware that the organization serves the entire County of San Bernardino.

With free to low cost workshops and classes that give residents in the region the opportunity to connect with their creative side, the Arts Council, formerly known as Arts Connection, has a busy month ahead with an opening of Alexa Vasquez’s “Cisne” art showcase, its Let’s Create Together workshop, and an artist at work spotlight.

“Art really unifies our community in a number of ways. I feel that for San Bernardino we’re experiencing this art renaissance and it’s creating so many job opportunities and allowing the region to experience art in a big way,” said Saniyyah Thomas, operations manager.

One way residents across the county can experience art in a major way is on April 23rd, 4-9 PM, at the Garcia Center for the Arts, when Inland Empire Artist Vasquez debuts her art showcase “Cisne,” a visual celebration of her story as a child migrant and reimagining a difficult queer childhood in the United States.

“I want my debut show to be a testament of survival and homecoming. It’s not often that migrant children like me get to make it back home. This show is a realm that has opened itself to me as a way of returning home,” said Vasquez.

She hopes “Cisne” gives the audience a sense of nostalgia as she returns to the practice of childhood play and exploration through her work.

“I hope the overall show creates a space to celebrate queer migrant childhood through art and incites a need to fight for all children. I think as a queer middle child in an immigrant family I was destined to be an artist. I grew up a very feminine, sensitive, emotional and stubborn boy, a true Pisces. Expressing myself was a gift that sometimes came with punishment. My queer imagination and art helped me survive the abuse I experienced at home,” concluded Vasquez.

Thomas also chimed in saying that the showcase will be bright and beautiful, and that “Cisne” means swan in Spanish.

“At one point art almost seemed to be an exclusive culture, but with spaces like the Arts Council in San Bernardino County and Garcia Center for the Arts, there’s now space for free and low-cost workshops that provide a critical outlet for those in the county to express themselves,” concluded Thomas.